


homecoming

by MaliciousVegetarian



Series: Witcher Pregnancy/Baby Prompts - March [8]
Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Adoption, Gen, Kid Fic, Purposeful Baby Acquisition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29929443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaliciousVegetarian/pseuds/MaliciousVegetarian
Summary: With no progress towards regaining her fertility and no partner in her life, Yennefer decides to adopt.
Series: Witcher Pregnancy/Baby Prompts - March [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2189178
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	homecoming

**Author's Note:**

> Day Eight: Single
> 
> I really really love this one so I hope you all do too! I'm sick atm and didn't edit this as heavily as normal, so there's a good chance I'll come back and work it over.

Yennefer arrives at the orphanage early in the morning, portaling to it’s huge gray wood door. She rests a hand against the huge iron hinges, too anxious to knock.

Today is a day she’s been waiting for for years. A day she had never seen happening like this, but wanted all the same. She’s going to get her baby.

She has to steel herself, she thinks. She has to make sure she won’t be overwhelmed with sympathy. She’s never had an instinctive reaction to children, but she does to children in trouble, and she’s about to enter a room full of them.

It’s been a long and winding road here. After the mountain, after fighting with Geralt and leaving, she had found herself considering Borch’s words. And when a pamphlet for an orphanage had been handed to her in the streets (they had seen she was a sorceress and hoped she would donate money. She had.), it had seemed it was all coming together. She still mourned the experience she was losing, the idea of creating a child inside of her - but in the end. A choice had been taken from her. But she had realized there were other ways of taking it back.

Breathing in the smoky morning air, she lifts her hand and raps on the door.

The woman who comes out is dressed in a plain gray dress that makes Yennefer think of the shifts they had worn at Aretuza. This dark building makes her think of Aretuza in other ways, though she knows it’s much different. The cruelness of this place is not the intention of those who operate it, just a consequence of circumstance. Over the past month of contact, she has seen how hard the orphanage’s workers try to place the children in proper homes, and they’re keeping them from a sadder existence on the street. Here, they are warm and dry and their bellies are full.

It isn’t a home, though.

The hallways are bustling with children, playing with worn toys in small, huddled groups. Yennefer promises herself she’ll pay the carpenter in Rinde to make newer ones for them. She’s led up a set of treacherous stairs to a small room with plenty of windows. It’s lined wall to wall with cribs. Some of the children are old enough to stand, holding the bars with their little fists. Yennefer holds her heart together as best she can and walks by them.

The youngest children are at the far end, laying on their backs in cribs, looking up at her with wide eyes. Her attention is caught by a crib with two babies in together, one of them considerably smaller than the other. They both have dark brown skin, their wispy hair beginning to curl. The larger baby has a hand flung out towards the smaller. As Yennefer looks closer, she realizes the smaller baby has uneven shoulders, the left one pulled up towards their ear.

Her guide gives her an odd look as she leans over the babies, but provides the information on them. “This is Ana and Lara. They’re two months old. Their mother was killed when their house collapsed, and she had no family in the area who could take them in. As you can see, Ana is much smaller, and her spine is twisted. In addition, her heart is weak. If the curve of the spine worsens, she may require a brace, but if it stays as it is the healers say no intervention will be needed. Nevertheless, the weakness in her heart will make her a difficult child to care for.”

Yennefer can feel herself bristling. This baby has clearly already been labeled a burden, regardless of how small she is. A little girl with a twisted spine. Yennefer doesn’t really have a choice, she thinks.

She puts her hand in closer, and both babies study her. Taking both of them would be a ridiculous step but. It seems cruel to separate them.

She takes a deep breath. Rushing into this will help none of them. She’ll look at the other children, and come back tomorrow, and see how she feels then.

She barely sleeps that night.

The next day, she’s back early. A different woman with a weathered face lets her in and once again leads her to the nursery.

Today, Yennefer summons her nerve and asks, “Can I hold them?” The woman nods.

Carefully, she reaches in and lifts Lara up first. She’s not entirely sure how to hold a baby this young - she’s occasionally held villagers’ children in Rinde, but they’ve all been around a year and able to hold their heads up - but after a moment she gets the hang of it. Lara squirms in her arms, looks up at her, and starts to cry.

 _Oh great. She hates me already,_ Yennefer thinks, but the old woman merely laughs and scoops Lara up. “She needs to be changed. Give us just a moment. Why don’t you hold Ana while I’m gone?”

Yennefer does as instructed. Ana is quiet, letting out nothing but a little “eh, eh” sound. Gently, Yennefer lifts her so the baby’s head rests on her shoulder. The baby lifts one hand, and pulls at Yennefer’s hair.

When the old woman returns with Lara, they carefully switch babies. Yennefer can feel how much heavier than Ana Lara is. She cradles her in her arms, looking down into her dark brown eyes, which have the color and brilliance of brown jasper. She’s dressed in a tiny little stone-blue dress, with plain lace around the edges. Ana is dressed identically.

Being a sorceress would probably make being a mother to twins easier, Yennefer muses. She’ll need to find another crib, and more clothes, and she’ll have to pay the wetnurse she’s arranged for more, but - she thinks she can handle it.


End file.
